Page 90 of Warrior Security
I didn’t stop. Every second he drove was another second they were trapped inside.
Carter hit me again. My lip split, and I knew my nose might be broken. My vision doubled and my ears filled with a high, thin sound and every muscle in my body wanted to quit.
I was not going to quit.
I lunged across the console and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and pulled.
The car swerved. Carter overcorrected. The tires left the road and the world tilted, trees and sky trading places, and the sound of metal folding came from every direction at once.
The car rolled. My head hit something. I was weightless and pinned at the same time, and the noise was everywhere and then it was gone.
The last thing I saw before the dark closed in was the glow through the shattered windshield. Orange light on the underside of the trees, filling the sky above the place where my animals were.
Chapter 26
Logan
Hunter called the session. We’d spent the last three hours at the range behind the Resting Warrior compound running tactical drills and comms protocols, getting me back up to speed for part-time ops. Gear came off, shoulders dropped, and the compound filled with the loose, easy noise that only existed after the work was done.
Beckett was rolling his neck. Cooper was breaking down the comms setup on the table. Travis was inside at his screens, still running post-session checks from the comms drills he’d put us through. Isaac leaned against the tailgate of Hunter’s truck with a coffee he’d been nursing for the past hour.
He and Fallon were staying at Resting Warrior for a few days while Fallon bonded with Gimbal, and Isaac had spent the afternoon watching us train with the relaxed attention of a man who had opinions about everything and the good sense to keep most of them to himself.
“Go home, Stroud,” Beckett said. “You’ve been checking the clock for the last forty minutes.”
“I have not.”
“You have. You’ve got a woman waiting for you, and your head left this compound about an hour ago. I know the symptoms because I have the same disease.”
“Yeah, but I looked better than you out there today. Even distracted.”
Beckett put a hand over his heart. “Excuse me. My tactical stance is flawless, and I will not be taking feedback from a man who’s been out of the game for two months.”
“Dude, you clear a doorway like a penguin.”
Isaac laughed from the truck. Cooper shook his head. Hunter almost smiled, which for Hunter was the equivalent of a standing ovation.
I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket. I’d powered it down when we started the session three hours ago and hadn’t thought about it since.
Texts from Lark popped up immediately.
I don’t say enough how much it means to me that you’re in my life. And I’m glad you’re at Warrior Security, refusing to let your demons get the better of you. Come home safe to me.
I read it twice. Then the second one.
Tova says to come home safe to her too.
I almost smiled.
Also, I never thanked you for the rose you left in my truck the other day while I was in town. You didn’t have to, and that’s what made it so special. Knowing you were thinking about me.
My smile faded as I read it again.
I’d never left a rose in her truck. I hadn’t been near her truck that day at all while I’d been in town. I’d gone to Murphy’s for a hinge I needed, but I hadn’t gone near her truck and I sure as hell hadn’t left a rose on her seat.
My gut went cold before my brain caught up. What the actual hell? Someone had been inside her truck and left arose?
I stared at the screen. Was there a real threat here? My hypervigilance had been wrong before. It turned ordinary things into threats and made me second-guess what was real. Every veteran I knew had a version of the same wiring, the kind that kept you alive in combat and then spent the rest of your life lying to you about what was dangerous.
